Delhi L-G Anil Baijal appoints panel to aid Delhi’s Covid-19 pandemic response

A statement issued by the office of the L-G on Friday said: “The Lieutenant Governor of Delhi today constituted an advisory committee of eminent experts under section 17 of DDMA Act to advise the DDMA on various aspects of COVID-19 management.”

Delhi’s Lieutenant Governor (L-G) Anil Baijal on Friday appointed a six-member advisory committee to suggest effective measures to the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) to tackle the Covid-19 outbreak in the city and to guide the augmentation of hospital beds.

Lt. Governor Anil Baijal reviews strategies for containment zones management through video conferencing with Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, health minister, commissioner of police, spl commissioner of police (law & order), Delhi joint secretary(DM), MHA, divisional commissioner, chief secretary, addl chief secretary, DMs and other officials at Raj Niwas in New Delhi on Friday. (ANI Photo)

The decision by the L-G, who also heads the DDMA, came a day after Delhi recorded the highest number of Covid-19 cases in a single day (1,877), which took the total number of Covid-19 cases to nearly 35,000. On the same day, the death toll in the city crossed the 1,000-mark.

Members of the advisory committee set up by the L-G on Friday include Krishna Vatsa, member, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA); Kamal Kishore, another member of the NDMA; Professor Balram Bhargava, director general of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR); Dr Randeep Guleria, director of the All India Institute of Medical Science; Dr Ravindran, Additional DDG at the Directorate General of Health Services and Dr Surjit Kumar Singh, director of the National Centre for Disease Control. Bhargava shall be heading the committee, said a senior officer in the L-G’s office.

“The expert committee will give their opinion on various challenges being faced in Delhi in the prevention of the spread of COVID-19 and measures to ramp up medical infrastructure. The committee would also provide examples from global and national best practices. The L-G stated that the efforts being made by DDMA need to be bolstered by concerted planning, use of latest technology, efficient monitoring and seamless coordination amongst various agencies to overcome the challenge.”

Dr Guleria confirmed that he has been made a part of the committee.

The Delhi government too had earlier appointed two five-member advisory committees. Both have submitted several reports to the Delhi government and they are both officially functional till date, a senior government official said.

The first committee — led by Dr SK Sarin — was formed on March 27 to suggest measures to the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) to tackle the Covid-19 outbreak in the city. The second one — led by Dr Mahesh Verma — was formed on June 2 to help the government augment the city’s health care infrastructure.

Earlier this week, the L-G scrapped two Delhi government orders — one reserving beds in hospitals run by the city government and private ones, except a few, for residents of Delhi, and the other on keeping asymptomatic contacts of Covid-19 patients outside the ambit of the testing policy.

On Wednesday, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said Covid-19 cases in Delhi would touch 550,000 by July 31 and the city would need at least 150,000 beds if patients from other states are allowed treatment in the Capital’s hospitals.

AUGMENTATION & CONTAINMENT

Earlier on Friday, in a review meeting with Kejriwal, Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain, and senior bureaucrats leading the DDMA, Baijal stressed on stricter surveillance of the 212 active containment zones in the city even as he told the Delhi government that augmentation of the city’s hospital bed capacity should be its “top-most priority” at this stage, in the light of the sharp spike in Covid-19 cases.

Most of Delhi’s containment zones are in the north revenue district (35). The northeast district, despite being the one with highest population density, has emerged as the only district currently with no active containment zones, government records showed. Four weeks ago, the city had less than 100 such zones.

While north district magistrate Deepak Shinde did not respond to phones and text messages, northeast district magistrate Shashi Kaushal said there are currently no virus clusters in the revenue district, and most cases there are isolated instances, which did not necessitate sealing areas. But he added that the district administration will not hesitate to seal areas if clusters are noticed at any point.

Jugal Kishore, head of the community medicines department in Safdarjung Hospital said, “At this juncture, it is very important for the government to ensure that district surveillance teams stay active in containment zones and adequate staff from district medical teams are always available to guide them. They can consider using trained volunteers from within communities to monitor the efficiency of the surveillance and testing mechanism. Rapid action teams should continue to be active in data collection, contact tracing and surveillance, their analysis and interpretation, and guide the government.”